Regenerative metallurgical furnace



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-=-(Ho mom.) I .-J. REESE. I RegenerativeMetallurgical Furnace. No. 240,845.. Paten'ted Ma -3,1881.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB REESE, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

REGENERATIVE METALLURGICAL FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. aaasaauatea May, 3, 1881.

Application filed September 29, 1880. (No model.)

To allwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J A0013 ltEEsE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in RegenerativeMetallurgical Furnaces; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact-description thereof, reference being had to the accompanyin g drawings, forming a part thereof, in which- Figure 1 on Plate 1 is a front elevation of an improved regenerative open-hearth furnace. Fig. 2 on Plate 2 indicates the same as the preceding figure, partly in section. Fig. 3 on Plate 3 is a cross-sectional plan view taken through at the line 00 :2; shown in Figs. 1 and 2 on Plates 1 and 2, Fig. 4 indicates a sectional elevation through the upper portion of one of the stoves, taken at the line yy in Fig. 3. Fig. 5 indicates a view of the top of a stove. Fig. 6 on Plate 4 isa front sectional elevation of an open-hearth regenerative furnace pro vided with an oblique revolving bottom, such as shown and described in English Letters PatentNo. 1,223 of 1853, for improvements in the manufacture of iron, by alker and Warren. Fig. 7 is a cross-sectional elevation of the same, taken at the line a 2 shown in Fig.6. Fig. 8 on Plate 5 is a front elevation of a regenerative double heating-furnace; and Fig.9 indicates the same as the preceding figure, partly in section.

Likelettersindicate like parts wherever they occur. I

My invention relates to the construction and arrangement of metallurgical regenerative furnaces wherein gaseous fuel is employed and the regeneration is attained by abstracting the caloric from the outgoing gases and returning it back into the furnace by means of the incoming air and gas.

Inorder that my invention and its advantages may be easily and readily understood, I shall briefly refer to the manufacture of ingotiron and steels low in carbon.

It is well known'that the'higher the percentage of carbon and silicon in steel the lower will be its melting-point and the more dense the structure of the product. The converse of this is also true.

Steels containing but little those made by the open hearth, and therefore v the latter process is the best adapted for the production of ingot iron and steels low in carbon and silicon. One defect, however, of the open-hearth process is to secure the high and continuous temperature required to keep such metals in a highly-fluid state. In steelshigh in carbon and silicon this condition of the metal is easily had, as the carbon and silicon render it very fluid at a comparatively low temperature; but in this case a high degree of fluidity can only be obtained by subjecting it to an intense and prolonged temperature, as otherwise the metal assumes a pasty condition, producing an imperfect and spongy product. In investigating this subject I have been led to believe that the difliculty arises from the fact that heretofore all regenerative furnaces have been so arranged and constructed that the distance of travel of the air and gases through the regenerators was very short,

being only from about eight to twelve feet. This distance was entirely too short, as the temperature of the outgoing waste or burnt gas and the temperature of the incoming air and gas depend largely upon the velocity of the currents and the length of the passages through which they pass while in the regenerators; or, in other words, the waste or burnt gases lose less caloric in passing through a short than "through a long passage when traveling at any given velocity; and consequently the incoming air and gas abstract less heat from the regenerators in passing through a short than 'through a long passage.

The object of my invention is to produce a regenerative metallurgical furnace free from such defects, and therefore I construct the regenerators of a cylindrical form, place them at opposite ends of the metal working or heating chamber, and construct the interior of each regenerator of fire-brick lattice-work arranged in vertical compartments, as will hereinafter more fully and clearly appear.

I shall now describe Inyinvention more fully, so that others skilled in the art to which it appertains maymake and use the same.

IOO

In the drawings, Figure 1 indicates an ordinary open hearth provided with my improved regenerators. Fig. 2 indicates the internal construction; and Figs. 3, 4, and 5 indicate details of construction of the same.

A indicates the furnace.

B and B are cylindrical regenerative stoves, which are jacketed externally with plate-iron, and are connected to opposite ends of the furnace by means of the combustion-chambers O and 0. Each stove is divided from its base to its dome into two separate vertical divisions by means of a central division-wall, 0, as shown in Fig. 5.

P indicates another division-wall, which extends in each section from the base up to a point near the dome, so that each stove is constructed internally in two separate vertical compartments, each of which is subdivided into two sections, which communicate at the dome. Each section of the stoves is built up with fire-brick in lattice arrangement, extending from the perforated roofs c and d of the combustion and distributing chambers at the base of the stoves up to a point near their dome, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 4.

D and D are the distributing-chambers at the base of each stove.

E indicates an inlet-chamber for the admission of gas into the distributing-chamber D.

E indicates a similar chamber for the admission of air into the distributing-chamber D.

G indicates a double central chamber communicating with both the distributing chambers D and D, in order to carry oi the burnt gas from the regenerator into the stack.

H and H indicate caps for closing orifices in the top of the dome of each stove, as indicated in Fig. 5, which orifices are for the purpose of admitting means for cleansing the interior of the stove.

In the construction of my improved plant I supplythe air-inlet chambers E with valves open to the atmosphere, and the gas-inlet chambers E with suitable valves to admit, regulate, and stop the admission of gas into the gasdist-ributing chambers. The waste-gas-outlet double chambers G are also provided with suitable valves, in order to regulate the draft, none of which valves are shown in the drawings, as their construction and application will be readily understood by the skilled mechanic.

In Figs. 6 and 7 an improved regenerative open hearth provided with a Walker and Warren oblique revolving hearth is shown. In this case the only difl'erence in construction is of the furnace proper, which is fully set forth in their patent granted in England in 1853, and numbered 1,223.

In Figs. 8 and 9 a double heating regenerative furnace is shown provided with regenerators, arran ged and constructed as h ereinbefore described. v

The operation of my improvement is as follows: The air is admitted into the inlet-chamber E by opening its valve. Gas is also admitted into the inlet-chamber E of the same stove. The double outlet-chamber valve of the stove is closed, and the air and gas valves of the opposite stove are closed and its double outlet-chamber valve opened to create a draft from the stack. The draft from the stack draws the air into the distributing-chamber,'

up through the lattice-work, over the divisionwall 1?, and down through the lattice-work into the combustion chamber, at the same time drawing the gas into the gas-distributing chamber, up through the lattice-work, over the division-wall P, and down through thelattice-work into the combustion-chamber, where it unites with the oxygen of the air, and an intense and vivid combustion takes place, developin g great heat, and the products of combustion pass into the furnace and over the metal-chamber into the combustion-chamber on the opposite end of the furnace, and from there upward through each division of the opposite stove, and then downward through it into the distributing-chambers, and from there through the double chamber Gr, and from it into the stack. The hot gases, in passing up and down through the stove, heat the brick of which it is composed to a very high degree, and after thirty minutes (more or less) have elapsed the valves are changed and the currents reversed, and the air and gas, entering the highly-heated stove, are heated to a very high degree, and when they pass into the com, bustion-chamber an intense and thorough combustion takes place.

When an improved open-hearth plant of tenton capacity is constructed the regenerators should be made of about twelve feet diameter by thirty-tit e feet in height. This will give the burnt gases a transit of about seventy feet and lower their temperature two thousand to two thousand five hundred degrees before they leave the regenerator, and the incoming air and gas will take up this heat, and the products of their combustion will raise the temperature of the furnace to a very high degree.

The chief advantages of my improvement are: The temperature of the escaping gases is lowered to a very low degree and the temperature of the incoming air and gas is raised to a very high degree, thus utilizing a greater proportion of the caloric and securinga higher and more intense degree of heat in the furnace secondly, the furnaces are not exposed to the eifects of the expansion and contraction of the regenerators, as in the former mode of construction and arrangement, thirdly, the heavy gases drop down into the combustionchambers and are burned, thus doing away with the danger of explosion.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. Themetallurgical regenerative plant herein described, which consists in the combination of a metal working or heating chamber with two cylindrical regenerative stoves, which are placed above the ground at opposite ends of the metal-chamber and each of which is divided into two separate vertical compartments by a main division wall, each compartment being divided into two vertical sections, filled with fire-brick in lattice arrangement, and communicatin g together at the dome of the stove, constructed substantially in the manner and for the purpose specified.

2. A cylindrical regenerative stove provided with an internal heating-surface of latticework in two separate vertical compartments, each of which is subdivided into two vertical sections, communicating together at the dome of the stove, and provided with two separate dis- I 5 tributing-chambers and acombustion-chamber at its base, substantially as herein set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JACOB REESE. Witnesses:

FRANK M. REESE, GRAHAM Soo'r'r. 

